Last week’s moves – trading for Mikal Bridges and getting back draft picks – have the Nets on the road to rebuilding.
But what kind? Planned or full-scale? How long? One season or several?
If you haven’t made that decision yet, you need to make it, and if you have already made it, you need to have the courage to stick with it even when you’re tempted to change course.
“Yeah, that’s the question: Is it a half-rebuild or a full rebuild?” former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks, now with ESPN, told The Post. “A full rebuild takes two or three years, rolling over expiring contracts, getting salaries back, adding draft picks. Or are they saying they’ve done enough with the Bridges trade, getting the Rockets pick back? … They get a top-four pick hopefully and have $80 million to spare in the summer of 2025 to acquire one or two players.”
“For me it’s hard because I know in 2019 they won the gold medal. [Kyrie] Irving and [Kevin] That won’t happen with Durant. Outside of them, Houston is the only team that has been able to revamp its roster recently. [22] “It’s not easy to get to 41 wins. It’s difficult. But of course, the way to build a roster is to build a team with young guys and add free agents with cap space. You don’t want to trade away picks or use up what you have. So that’s an option they have.”
The Nets’ path is clear.
They have four first-round picks in a rich 2025 draft and $80 million to spend in free agency.
Or you could undertake a longer-term, more thorough restructuring.
Instead of taking expiring contracts like Ben Simmons, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schroder off the cap next summer, the Nets could move them now, shed salary and save more picks, but that would drag the rebuild down to at least two or three years. Will Nets owner Joe Tsai do that?
“It depends on your stomach, your appetite,” Marks said. “Do you have the appetite to sit back for two years, rebuild and stare across the river while they’re fighting for a championship? If that’s OK, that should be OK, because the way New York operates shouldn’t force you to try to accelerate a rebuild. You’re going to take a direction where you continually accumulate draft assets. The question is what do you get back?”
This is an ownership-level decision, and it’s unclear which way Tsai is leaning.
He watched Houston take the first approach and reach a .500 winning percentage in just two years.
But Tsai watched Detroit finish 14-68 this season after a top-to-bottom five-year rebuild and lose an NBA-record 28 straight games, Washington is going to be terrible for a while, and Oklahoma City’s decline only lasted three years because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“You get lucky in the lottery,” Marks said. “You can go 15-67 and still get picked fifth, so nothing’s guaranteed. … I mean, I went to the lottery in 2009-2010 and I went 12-70 and ended up being picked third.”
After losing an NBA-record 18 straight games to start the season, Marks’ Nets gave up on John Wall and ultimately acquired Derrick Favors. That lottery draw will require a lot of luck.
But it’s also important to land a big-name free agent next summer.
Whatever path the Nets choose, they need to stay on it.
“You have to have a plan that you embrace,” Marks said. “A big market team that’s rebuilding. That doesn’t usually work. What if we do better than expected next year?”
“What happens if the team we thought would win 20, 25 games ends up winning 30, 35 games? If we go into next offseason and it’s the same situation as 2019, [free agents] Would you like to come? Or what will happen in a year? [if] There may be times when you want to sacrifice picks to improve your roster, so you need to have a plan. [and] Follow the plan.”
No matter which plan Tsai Ing-wen chooses.
